Chinese murder suspect believed to have fled to Beijing: U.S. police

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese national suspected of a double murder in Los Angeles has fled the United States for China, U.S. police said on Saturday.

Deyun Shi, the 44-year-old suspect, is believed to have killed two teenage boys, aged 14 and 15, at a home in Arcadia, a city in Los Angeles county, Sara Rodriguez of the Los Angeles County Sherriffs Department told Reuters by phone. Police believe Shi fled on a plane to Beijing.

The boys, who were Shi's nephews, suffered from "blunt force trauma" and were discovered by local police on Friday afternoon, Rodriguez said.

Shi, who police consider "armed and dangerous", is also wanted in a spousal assault that took place Thursday, according to a statement from the department.

A backlog of tens of thousands of Chinese nationals awaiting deportation for violating U.S. immigration laws, including 900 classified as violent offenders, have not been repatriated, often because China has been slow in providing the necessary documents. The issue has strained relations between the world's two largest economies.

Rodriguez said she could not say whether the department or other U.S. law enforcement bodies had been in touch with counterparts in China about the case. Chinese public security authorities could not be reached for comment.

China does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. China is pushing the U.S. to return its citizens that it suspects of fleeing corruption investigations at home.

Western governments have long been reluctant to hand over suspects to China because of a lack of transparency and due process in China's judicial system. In the past, Chinese government officials convicted of corruption have sometimes been sentenced to death.